With Aaron Brooks out of action the Rockets need 24-year old point guard Kyle Lowry to step up his game. Lowry has played in 12 games (8 starts) so far this year for the Rockets and he is averaging 32.3 minutes, 8.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He is only shooting 36.8% from the floor and he is 6 of 25 (24%) from three point range so far this year. The Rockets need Lowry to start shooting better and they need him to score more points while Brooks is out of action.

With Aaron Brooks and Yao Ming out of action, the Rockets needed someone to step up on offense and 27-year old shooting guard Kevin Martin is answering that call.  Martin has played in 11 games (all starts) for the Rockets so far this year and he is averaging 32.9 minutes, 23.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.  Martin has got a smooth stroke from the outside and he doesn’t mind driving to the basket either so I won’t be surprised at all if he leads the Rockets in scoring this year.

22-year old, undrafted rookie point guard Ishmael Smith is making the most of the playing time he’s getting early this year.  He has played in 9 games (3 starts) for the Rockets so far this year and he is averaging 19.0 minutes, 5.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.0 steal per game.  He is 3 of 5 (60%) shooting from three point range but he’s only hitting 36.5% overall from the floor and that needs to improve.  I look for Smith to keep getting solid P.T. until Aaron Brooks returns from injury.

Brad Miller, Jordan Hill and Chuck Hayes all share the minutes at center when Yao’s not playing so look for them to have expanded roles for the next week. Miller has played in 6 games (0 starts) for the Rockets so far this year and he is averaging 13.7 minutes, 4.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Jordan Hill has the highest upside of this bunch. He has played in 8 games (1 start) for the Rockets so far this year and he is averaging 18.0 minutes, 5.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 0.2 assists and 1.6 blocked shots per game. Chuck Hayes is a undersized fighter under the basket. He has played in 7 games (1 start) for the Rockets so far this year and he is averaging 21.0 minutes, 5.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. I have a feeling that Miller, Hill & Hayes will do a decent job of filling in until Yao is ready to return to action.

The Houston Rockets will be without starting center Yao Ming for the next week due to a strained tendon in his left leg. Yao has played in 5 games (all starts) so far this year and he is averaging 18.2 minutes, 10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 1.6 blocked shots per game. Yao is being limited to 24 minutes per night and he isn’t playing in second end of back to back games. Still, he’s playing well in his limited minutes and the Rockets will take it easy with him with this injury.

UPDATE: (11/23/2010) - The Rockets are going to be without Yao for another two weeks as they are going to take it slow with him and that’s a smart move.